In the middle of October the Japanese military authorities sent Marshal Hasegawa to take charge of military affairs in Korea. He arrived on the thirteenth and shortly after went to Wonsan to inspect matters in that vicinity. The news of considerable Russian activity in northeast Korea seemed to need careful watching and the presence of a general competent to do whatever was necessary to keep them in check.
The laying of the last rail of the Seoul Fusan-Railway was an event of great importance to Korea. It adds materially to the wealth of the country both by forming a means of rapid communication and by enhancing the value of all the territory through which it runs. It also gives Japan such a large vested interest here that it becomes, in a sense, her guarantee to prevent the country from falling into the hands of other Powers. But like all good things it has its dangers as well.
Mr. Megata, the new adviser to the Finance Department arrived in the Autumn and began a close study of Korean monetary and financial conditions. This was an augury of good, for Korean finance has always been in a more or less chaotic condition since the time when the late Regent flooded the country with discarded Chinese cash and a spurious Korean coinage whose lack of intrinsic value gave the lie to its face.
Late in the year Mr. Stevens, the newly appointed adviser of the Foreign Department, took up his duties which, though less important than those of Mr. Megata, nevertheless gave assurance that the foreign relations of the government would be carefully handled.
As the year came to a close there were evidences that the Japanese were about to begin what should have been begun before, namely a gradual reform in the administration of the government. Useless offices are to be abolished, the army is to be brought down to its proper proportions, retrenchment is to be effected in various other lines and education is to be encouraged. On the whole the year closed with brighter prospects in Korea than any former portion of the year had shown.
The termination of an historical survey covering four thousand years of time naturally suggests some general remarks upon that history as a whole. And in the first place it is worth noting that the Korean people became a homogeneous nation at a very early date. Before the opening of the tenth century they were so firmly welded together that no sectional difference has ever seriously threatened their disruption.
Since the year 700 A. D. there have been two bloodless changes of dynasty but there has not been a single successful revolution, in the ordinary sense of the word. There have been three great and several small invasions but none of these left any serious marks upon the country either in the line of inter-mixture of blood or of linguistic modification. They served simply to weld the people more closely together and make the commonwealth more homogeneous than ever.
In the second place the power has always been in the hands of the men of greatest average wit, and it has uniformly been used to further personal aims. The idea of any altruistic service has been conspicuously lacking, though there have been brilliant exceptions. The concept of individuality or personality is strangely lacking in all Turanian peoples and this it is which has kept them so far in the rear of the Indo-European peoples in the matter of civilization. The essential feature of true progress, namely the recognition of the present time as on the whole the best time, the present institutions as being the best institution, the present opportunities as being the best opportunities, the present people as being the best people that history has to show—this feature is sadly lacking in the Far East. Japan has grafted this into her life and it already bears fruit, but Korea stands with China as yet.
Individual people cannot be sure of getting their just deserts in this life whether they be good or evil, but this is hardly true of nations. They generally get about what they have deserved. If men lived as long as empires they too might be served the same. It is poor philosophy to mourn the fate of a decadent empire or a moribund civilization. They have served their purposes[purposes] and are ready to pass away. Upon their ruins there are sure to arise edifices that are worthier of habitation than were those of the past. In Korea the old is passing away, is crumbling about our ears. The new wine is bursting the old bottles. The question for the future to answer is whether the Korean people will allow their ship of state to drift upon the Sargasso[Sargasso] Sea until the seaweed “rising strake on strake” shall make her utterly derilict, or whether they will awake from their lethargy, clear away the barnacles and jam the helm down hard a-port until the wind fills the sails and she can forge ahead toward some desired haven.
It is not the province of the historian to play the prophet nor shall we try to forecast what the future may bring forth, but it is permissible to express the hope that Korea will make herself increasingly worthy of a continued and distinguished history.